Hey Steemerz,

Autumn has arrived but winter seems to be creeping up fast. We had to make the best of the few warm days left. Where else would you go when you got kids but the park? And you know what, those parks are paid for with the crazily insane city tax here in Japan, so best to make use of it.

The plan was to buy some betnos ( Japanese boxed food), have a picnic then romp in the park. That plan was quickly derailed when Yumar spotted these mini firetrucks and ambulance Go Kart things. My wife and I tried to play it cool. "No, let's eat first!". We walked towards some benches, said "bye bye" hoping they would come running. We stepped with confidence like we knew what we were doing, other parents were watching ..........................dash..... Yumar runs straight into the GO Kart area and Kamar follows. Yup, we gave up !!!! Heads down, we headed to the Go Karts.

They jumped from kart to kart because they couldn't decide which one to ride. Then I realized... they can't drive no car, I gotta fit my big ass in this little teeny kart. Look at my face, I am not amused. I know I look like a grumpy ass dad but I am just keeping it real lol... no fake smile for the camera. I admit, its something I need to work on. PAPA Life isn't easy.

Look at my face hahahaha...gotta laugh at myself.

Lunch time

Two Go kart rides later ( almost 3) and it was time for lunch. The 2 bentos we bought consisted of fried chicken and squid on a rice ball with a boiled egg in soy sauce ( Yeah you could see the calorie count in your head probably). For some reason my wife also decided to buy doughnuts and other sweets. ( Didn't I say I was trying to lose weight?)

It all turned out OK though as the boys gobbled up those doughnuts and massacred the chicken & squid) ( I only had one doughnut... really.... only one.. and some chicken and squid of-course)

The benots were really good. The presentation is on point too.

Kamar is the one on the left with his mouth wide open in the top pic. They are getting use to posing for the camera, soon I can rent them out to modeling agencies muahahahahhaa. See if you can spot the difference between them.

Look at Yumar licking his doughnut. As a dad I sometimes get caught up in "they should be doing the right thing", " that's not acceptable". In this case, "that's not how you eat a doughnut!." My facial expression in the next pic will show you how I felt.

Yup, there goes MR Grinch again and its not even Xmas yet. Thinking back on this, why am I judging Yumar? If he wants to lick the sugar off his doughnut so be it! I need to chill out , parents need to chill out. Let those kids be kids.

Oh about "learning to pose for pics", I take that back. A family came by and they had twin girls, we actually met them around two years ago at the exact same park. My wife had met them at a twin circle. I suggested they take a pic together. Yumar obliged ( kinda)........ but Kamar said "YADA" ( meaning "no way" in English/ "Hell no" in adult English). He was busy eating and would not be disturbed. ( Kamra doe not paly when it comes to food).It's amazing how quite, calm and well mannered these girls are, quite the opposite of Yumar and Kamar. Boys will be boys making noise.

Play time

The boys haven't reached the age where they can play on a lot of the "attractions" themselves. So again I found myself in some spots. There was a giant slide, I mean like it took a good 5 minutes to get to the top and 45 seconds to disembark and these guys wanted to do it over and over and over again. My butt hurt, the slide has some bars with rotating cylinders to help you slide better but they really burn ass.

They bounced , they ran, they fell down, they swung they had a lot of fun. But the day would not be complete without dragging them out of the park kicking and screaming.

PAPA TIP: While they played on certain " attractions" for instance on the" bouncing hill" and on the swing, I did some push ups. Get it in where you can while you can. Abandoning the family to go the gym may not always be possible and if you have twins, it will be highly impossible until they reach a certain age. I also spent a good deal running away from them as well as towards them. Killing two crocs with one brick ( yeah I tried to be creative).

As we were about to leave they spotted some indoor activities, we obliged, this would probably get them tired and make sure they fell asleep in the car.

We were about to leave again, then Yumar spots popcorn at a stall, grabs it, I put it back, he grabs it again. Then Kamar spotted ice-cream. The thing with twins is, its best to get them the same thing or there will be fights afterwards ( or maybe that's just my twins). So they opted for the ice-cream. We only got one cup of vanilla and matcha, I told my wife get another cup. She was like " No, just feed them".... OK and that I did, a couple seconds later the boys said. " I wanna do it myself!!"... I saw it coming, my wife did too. But I think she was trying to play cool in-front of her friend she was talking to. At first it was going great, they were taking turns, then the "it's my turn" started....push shuv...push shuv....one soon drops then another.......And that's when it's my queue to say "OK lets GTFOH."

Dragging yumar by the hand out the park, spoon-less cup with some matcha ice-cream still in it in my other hand..... I walk towards the car trying to get the last of the matcha out. My wife with Kamar dragging him by his hand while he bawls out "lift me up".. It usually ends like this at this park. We have seen it in spring, summer and now autumn ( again).

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PAPA BALANCE

Balancing creativity or business and family life can be difficult but I'm learning how to juggle. Luckily the boys were down by the time we reached home. I was able to touch up a song in my home studio that I started recording in the morning while my family was out at the store. I wanted to chill in my studio all day and create and tend to my business. But that is down right selfish......I hardly get to spend much time with my family in the week so I have to make that precious family time. As a parent you have to learn to be more efficient with your time. For example: Instead of spending 2-4 hours to record a song, get it done on 1 hr-1 1/2 max. The song may not sound as good as I want it to, but I have it recorded, I can go in and tweak up even re-record some parts later, with practice I will be recording more efficiently.The thing when you have twins or even one kid, and you are in your office/your space, they are gonna come barging in, and if you lock the door.....if its a studio, they will be making noise in the other room which may be picked up by the mic. So it's better to record when they are not around. But that means they are out with mommy which may be unfair unless you take turns doing that. Make a time slot for your creativity or business but be flexible. Look out for the opportunities to get shvt done.

Oh yeah, check out my latest single here

later on that night I got another one of my goals for the day done. Meeting with a friend of mine to plan an even. This didn't take long, I even had time to take a pic on this bike.

How about you guys, any tips or hacks to balance family and business/creativity?